Apple turns to blacklisted Chinese chipmaker as memory crisis bites

Apple has approached the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese chipmaker on the Pentagon's 1260H list of companies the Defense Department believes are linked to the People's Liberation Army, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Apple first raised the matter with the Commerce Department about a month ago.

Apple is not technically barred from buying from CXMT — the 1260H restriction applies to the Defense Department itself, not to private companies. But proceeding without government approval risks Apple's federal contracting relationships. Congress has already signaled its objection. John Moolenaar, who leads Congressional efforts to investigate China's geopolitical influence, told the FT the move would be a grave mistake.

The report comes two days after Apple raised prices across its Mac and iPad lines earlier in the week, the most sweeping price increase in its modern history. The MacBook Neo went from $599 to $699, the 13-inch MacBook Air from $1,099 to $1,299, and iPad Pro models rose by $200. Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani put the increases at 17% to 25% across base configurations. Apple shares fell 6.1% on the day, wiping around $265 billion from its market value.

Apple currently buys memory from Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. All three are under pressure from AI data centre demand that is pulling supply away from consumer electronics. Memory prices have quadrupled over the past three quarters per Counterpoint Research. Adding CXMT would give Apple a fourth supplier and reduce its dependence on a supply chain that has been tightening for months. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the memory constraints will likely persist for several months. He will hand the problem to incoming CEO John Ternus on September 1.

Apple has not commented on the CXMT report. The Trump administration has also not indicated whether it will approve the request.